Just This Once

"I think I'm in love.....again." 
-Outkast

He couldn't help loving Isis Daniels.

That's just how it'd always been. For as long as he remembered, he'd been chasing after her like she was a character off Looney Tunes, trying his best to get a glimpse of her.

See, the thing about Isis was that she could do anything. Sports, dance, school, debate, track, and more....hell, she could save the world if she wanted. She'd helped Jazmine to embrace her blackness, made Huey more outgoing, him a little more serious, and managed to level with kids her age better than most able-bodied adults.

Even Riley had come to respect her. Isis had given him no choice. She'd warned Riley she wasn't like the suburban-born girls of Woodcrest; she was from the heart of Atlanta, and she would happily fight him anytime, anywhere. With a speed no ordinary ten-year-old girl possessed, she promptly laid him flat on his back for calling her a bitch in front of the entire basketball team. When the boy had finally come to, he and Huey had laughed so hard they thought their lungs would fall out.

The crazy thing was, she only got finer with time. Girls normally had strange phases as they grew, looking awkward and gangly, even straight up ugly for a few years. Unlike Cindy and Jazmine, puberty had been kind to Isis. Even with glasses on, she'd still managed to look like a human barbie doll.

As time went on and she grew into herself, there was no boy that could resist admiring Isis as she walked through the halls of Woodcrest High, tall, gorgeous, and glasses-free.

"When are you gonna realize you're wasting these dudes' time?" Caesar tsked in disapproval after some guy named Nicholas reminded her about their date that weekend. "You know you only have eyes for me, baby."

"Caesar, you're killing me." Isis always did the same thing every time. She'd twist her head to the side, then shake it until her expression showed she was half-annoyed, half-amused. "When are you gonna get a clue?"

It was a gesture reserved only for him, something Huey always warned him not to get excited about. But Caesar knew better than to listen to his friend when it came to matters of the heart, especially when Huey was confused about his feelings for not one, but two girls. Unlike him, Caesar knew it was yet another sign, and that it was only a matter of time before she'd be his girl, no matter how long it took.

Isis would be his to love...

Someday.

She'd be his to laugh at funny jokes with, his to dance with until crack of dawn, his to party with at some club they wouldn't remember the name of hours later, his to impress with his momma's famous oxtail recipe, his to shop with (until they both dropped from exhaustion), his to protect from the world when her light drew the wrong ones near, his to be with... forever.

That's what he told himself when the doubt creeped in, and his efforts seemed pointless. Something deep inside him knew she'd come around eventually.

"Anyways, Caesar, how are you?" She'd asked him a year later, as they headed to their senior class assembly. "Long time, no see."

"So our class president missed me." He made a show of brazenly checking her out. "I'm surprised."

"I guess it wasn't the same in DC without you." She stayed calm, cool, and collected after admitting it, but Jazmine's poorly concealed excitement gave him hope that there was something more to her words, lying beneath the surface. "I might have missed you a little. Just this once."

That's what she always said whenever they took a step forward, right before she flew ten steps back. Just this once.

Like freshman year, when she'd auditioned for the pom squad and fell leg-first into the ground. He'd rushed out playfully, as if it were all a part of the act. He knew the routine so well that his reaction was instant. Together, they broke into the choreography, ending it with her infamous back-to-back triple somersault before Isis landed into a perfect split. The mess-up made her go even harder, and the judges could only respect her for it. She'd killed it, humbly grinning from ear to ear when her number had finally been called.